Crawdad Color Question

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 2:18 pm

In responses to many posts regarding bait colors the phrase "in crawdad colors" regularly comes up. I certainly know what a crawdad is, and have eaten more than a few, but I've never paid particular attention to the subtle hues that may exist in their coloration other than the basic brown, green, and orange. I was hoping somebody out there could help me with selecting bait colors that would match those of crawdads that we have here in California. Does anyone know of a website, with pics if possible, that covers crawdads in California? Any info would be appreciated.

Thx....Joe

Dewayne · Post by **Dewayne** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 5:01 pm

Making my own jigs I have played a lot withy matching crawdad colors. The more I try to match them the less concerned I get about matching the colors.

Craw color depends on season, species, size, sex, and how long since they have molted. DUring the winter and early spring the big black/red craw go into hibernation and are seldom seen. The smaller craws that seem to be out when the water is below the mid mid 50 degree temp are usually dull colored mostly brown with a little green. In late spring, summer, and early fall you have a lot of the big black/red craws out on the Delta and Cear Lake. On lakes as the water warms and the craws spend more time out of the rocks they brighten up. The most common ones are brown/green/ with a little orange.

I have yet to see a purple craw and on most every pond I have fished bass love a little purple in the bait. Purple and blue are colors that show up well in the water. A bait they can see may be a better bait than one that is camoflaged like a craw.
Of course I have also seen bites when the fish seemed to only be eating a certain color.

Anyway, Experimenting can be fun, but remember that the right color is not always the one that matches the craws the best. Specially under low light conditions.

mac (Doyle McEwen) · Post by **mac (Doyle McEwen)** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 5:39 pm

Truthfully Dewayne, I haven't seen all that many dads out here in California, at least not to the extent that I saw them in the Southern US and Texas..There, it is not uncommon to see quite a bit of blue though most often it is more like teal or turquoise hues..I agree I have never seen any with any shade of purple in them or anything even close..I don't know either if they can just see those colors beter or if possibly they see them differently than we do..

mac

Ray L. · Post by **Ray L.** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 6:42 pm

I guess you have not been to any of the Colorado River Lakes because I have seen many crawdads with a hint of Purple on there shell. You can go there almost anytime of year and find some with a purple tint to part of there shell. I believe it is a mix of the red color and blue color that gives it the purple look.

mac (Doyle McEwen) · Post by **mac (Doyle McEwen)** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 7:00 pm

Yep, you are right, no experience at all on Colorado River impoundments..I don't doubt that there are some that have a purple tinge, I just have never seen any..

mac

JT-Madera · Post by **JT-Madera** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 6:36 am

In the last twenty years I have been collecting crawdads from all over the western United States.. I am blessed to have a private pond in my yard...

My pond has quite a diverse population and there is a species that when they molt turn sort of a purple/bubblegum/pink color for the first few hours...then their backs quickly turn from brown to dark/brown to black..It is very interesting to watch..The whole process only takes about two hours...I believe that is what the bass are looking for..You can squish them very easily..I have three species of delta craws that I collected for all over the Delta..There is a black/blueish/purple shelled craw that comes from the Old river area, that the tips of the claws turn reddish/orange in the fall/winter..One has a brown/greenish back with reddish claw tips..and the other one is BIG black and red/orange and rules the pond...all the others are afraid of those...

I found a population of green crawdads in Shasta and Oroville, mostly in the river arms that are small, but very fast and prolific..The Big red Delta craws love to eat them if they catch them..They will have a glint of red in their shells just before they molt..usually a day or so before molting.. Accept for the babies all my craws are 1oz or more and the Big delta craws will go 4-8oz and up...So the weight of your jig head is not really that important..I think that jig head weight is only important to the fall ratio.

All my craws molted three weeks ago!!!!!!! I had to rake the extra shells out of the shallow end of my pond, there were so many...There is an explosion in baby craws, all the moma craws are over loaded with babies on their backs!!!!! They look like fleas on a dogs back...and have a slight purple cast to them!!

Maybe my pond is different, but I think this will be the year of the jig..

P.S. I have pulled craws out of my pond and fished with them and the bass really don't care what color they are. Bass eat what is available... The closer to molt 'either side' pre or post molt, the bass can tell and will more readliy accept them and hit harder..

Hope this helps

JT-Madera

RogerB · Post by **RogerB** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 1:12 pm

Yo, JT, what a treasure trove you have!!!
Have you taken any photos of the different colorations of your craws? ...and are you willing to share those with us via the photo section of this site?
It sure would be appreciated.

azbass1 · Post by **azbass1** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 2:16 pm

Definitely purple on the Colorado River...I had a bass spit up a crawdad in my livewell at Havasu once and it was green and purple ....

JT-Madera · Post by **JT-Madera** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 6:39 pm

Roger,

I purchased a digital camera in January..I started a photo series on each species, taking new photos twice a week..At the end of the year I will have a good record of the changes that take place with time, date and temp..In December I will offer anyone that wants me to send them copies at that time...digital photos by computer that is....thru email...I will post offer on NCBF

JT-Madera

Delaney · Post by **Delaney** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 7:04 pm

I may be wrong here, but I was always thought that age of crawdads determined their color. Young ones green, middle age different shades of brown, and older ones more oranges and reds start to show up. I remember a very long time ago in Kentucky we used to seine small creeks for minnows for our own use, and would catch craws that we could sell to guys that ran trot lines in the Ohio River. The small soft shells we could sell for $2 a dozen, and they were green. The larger browns would only bring $1 a dozen. We couldn't sell the orange and red ones because they would be larger and we wouldn't catch very many anyway. We're catching a lot of fish on green pumpkin jigs and I have been assuming that it imitates a young soft-shell crawdad. Also, I don't recall ever seeing a small soft-shell that wasn't green, or a very large one that didn't have a lot orange or red in it.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 8:06 pm

Thanks all for the replys! I guess experimenting is the way to go. I too have never seen purple on a craw, but it sounds like it does exist and there are lakes where purple is a hot color. Could it be that purple and blue retain there color at greater depth and don't fade into shades of gray?

It looks like JT's been going to school at Ol' Crawdad U.! I'd be very interested in seeing those photos! Let us know.

Thanks again....Joe

RogerB · Post by **RogerB** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 10:35 pm

Thanks, JT.
That will be great! I'll look forward to your announcement of the availability of that series.

...RogerB

macinckirk · Post by **macinckirk** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:01 am

RogerB wrote:Thanks, JT.
That will be great! I'll look forward to your announcement of the availability of that series.

...RogerB

Same here Thanks for your time in posting all that info

Sambasstic · Post by **Sambasstic** » Tue Mar 26, 2019 3:36 pm

JT-Madera wrote:In the last twenty years I have been collecting crawdads from all over the western United States.. I am blessed to have a private pond in my yard...

My pond has quite a diverse population and there is a species that when they molt turn sort of a purple/bubblegum/pink color for the first few hours...then their backs quickly turn from brown to dark/brown to black..It is very interesting to watch..The whole process only takes about two hours...I believe that is what the bass are looking for..You can squish them very easily..I have three species of delta craws that I collected for all over the Delta..There is a black/blueish/purple shelled craw that comes from the Old river area, that the tips of the claws turn reddish/orange in the fall/winter..One has a brown/greenish back with reddish claw tips..and the other one is BIG black and red/orange and rules the pond...all the others are afraid of those...

I found a population of green crawdads in Shasta and Oroville, mostly in the river arms that are small, but very fast and prolific..The Big red Delta craws love to eat them if they catch them..They will have a glint of red in their shells just before they molt..usually a day or so before molting.. Accept for the babies all my craws are 1oz or more and the Big delta craws will go 4-8oz and up...So the weight of your jig head is not really that important..I think that jig head weight is only important to the fall ratio.

All my craws molted three weeks ago!!!!!!! I had to rake the extra shells out of the shallow end of my pond, there were so many...There is an explosion in baby craws, all the moma craws are over loaded with babies on their backs!!!!! They look like fleas on a dogs back...and have a slight purple cast to them!!

Maybe my pond is different, but I think this will be the year of the jig..

P.S. I have pulled craws out of my pond and fished with them and the bass really don't care what color they are. Bass eat what is available... The closer to molt 'either side' pre or post molt, the bass can tell and will more readliy accept them and hit harder..

Hope this helps

JT-Madera

Great info jt. Iam from the mad and I bass fish all the time

jiggin4bass · Post by **jiggin4bass** » Tue Mar 26, 2019 4:56 pm

If there one color in crawdad in jigs it should be
Green pumpkin/black green crystal / Burnt orange
One pad of green pumpkin Half a pad burnt orange
I tie this jig in from 1/64oz finesse to 3/4oz. This jig will catch largemouth,smallmouth,spottedbass.
I also tie this color on spinnerbaits and buzzbaits
If you know the color number of the pads
Then your sat.
I use 208 yamamato twin tail grubs.
And color 284 in twin tail grubs.
Been building this color for over 10 years and it never failed too catch fish year around.

WRB · Post by **WRB** » Tue Mar 26, 2019 6:58 pm

You all realize this thread is 13 years old!
Tom

jiggin4bass · Post by **jiggin4bass** » Tue Mar 26, 2019 7:02 pm

I know it's 13 year old thread but JT was one of the anglers on here that fished color he talk about that I still make in jigs today.

lobinero · Post by **lobinero** » Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:06 am

I have seen them light blue at Lake El Capitan in San Diego

Post by **WB Staff** » Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:31 pm

Would love to see some pix, if anyone has some to share.

toddmc · Post by **toddmc** » Wed Mar 27, 2019 1:07 pm

I remember winning a club tournament back in the 80's on a black and chartreuse jig, and laughing that I wasn't really imitating a crawdad. I never expected to see a crawdad that was even close in my lifetime. Sure enough, one of the golf course lakes in back of the house has huge black crawdads with a light green in the claws that is fairly close to chartreuse. Go figure. It seems like the craw colors are never ending.
The craw footage from Hook n' Look is really cool. The craws on the sandy bottoms in the Great Lakes area are almost tan.
A lot of the small green craws have the pearlescent green or blue undersides. I think that is why the magic craw swirl colors are popular.

WRB · Post by **WRB** » Wed Mar 27, 2019 1:51 pm

California has 1 native crawdad the Signal crayfish, all others are non native transplants.
Back in 1960 I found crawdads in Lake Tahoe near Meks bay that were light cinnamon with blue highlites and used them to catch some big trout. Who would think crawdads could live in Tahoe?
The late 60's I was a Pieces bass club member and learned the trick of coloring live crawdads using food color dye, blue dyed crawdads worked best in San Deiego city lakes for big bass. What became apparent was contrasting colors that standout work. The more camouflage the color the less effective it is. Look at a live crawdad and the shell is made up of dozens of colors and the craw can change it's color to match the surroundings to help it hide from predators.
Mid 70's I started to fish with hair jigs seriously with pork rind trailers. The Pedigo pork rind back then came in black, brown and purple colors, so I made up a 3 color hair jig black back purple center and brown belly so I could change triailer without changing hair jigs. This color combination worked better then I ever thought possible. Over the past nearly 50 years of jig fishing the black/purple/brown hair jigs caught bass coast to coast, Mexico and Canada so I call it Anywhere Anytime because it works anywhere anytime.
Serveral hundred DD bass with nearly 50 over 15 lbs all on hair jigs proves color is important if it's the right coloration where you fish, low light, bright light or night.
Everyone has their own coloration preferences and crawdads changed coloration seasonally as the shell ages, the options are endless. Green pumpkin and black with blue are very popular, just not my preference.
Tom